scaberulous: slightly or minutely rough to the touch, minutely scabrous.

scabridulous: slightly rough; diminutive of scabrous.

scabrous (= scabrid): rough to the touch.

scalariform: having a ladder-like pattern.

scale: a reduced or rudimentary leaf, e.g. surrounding a dormant bud; a thin flap of tissue of epidermal origin, e.g. at the base of a stamen in Simaroubaceae; a thin scarious trichome which is flattened and variously shaped. >image<

scandent: climbing.

scape: the stem-like, flowering stalk of a plant with radical or rosulate leaves.

scarious: dry and membranous.

schizocarp: a dry fruit formed from more than one carpel but breaking apart into 1-carpel units when ripe. cf.mericarp. >image<

sclerenchyma: mechanical tissue with heavily thickened cell walls.

sclereid: a cell (usually elongated) with a strongly lignified wall.

scleromorph: a plant whose leaves (or stems, if leafless) are hard in texture, usually having thick cuticle and containing many fibres. cf.xeromorph.

sclerophyllous: with leaves stiffened by sclerenchyma.

scorpioid: of a cymose inflorescence, branching alternately on one side and then the other, with the main axis coiled like the tail of a scorpion. cf.helicoid.

scribble: irregular lines on the bark of some eucalypts, being the old tunnels burrowed by moth larvae between bark layers and exposed when the outer layer falls.

secund: with all the parts grouped on one side or turned to one side (applied especially to the grouping of flowers in an inflorescence or stamens in a flower).

seed: a propagating organ formed in the sexual reproductive cycle of gymnosperms and angiosperms, consisting of a protective coat enclosing an embryo and food reserves. > image | image <

segment: a part or sub-division of a divided organ; one of a group of similar organs named collectively, e.g. one petal = a segment of a corolla.

semicraspedodromous: pinnate venation in which the secondary veins branch just inside the margin, one of the branches terminating at the margin, the other joining the superadjacent secondary vein. cf.acrodromous, brochidodromous, eucamptodromous.

sepal: a member of the (usually green) outer whorl of non-fertile parts surrounding the fertile organs of a flower.

sepaloid: looking like sepals, e.g. of bracts, usually green and arranged in a ring beneath a flower.

septate: divided internally by partitions.

septicidal: of the dehiscence of a fruit, along lines coinciding with the partitions between loculi. cf.loculicidal. >image<

septifragal: of the dehiscence of a fruit, the valves or backs of the carpels breaking away leaving the septa intact.

sessile: without a stalk, e.g. when applied to a stigma, indicates that the style is absent, the stigma being 'sessile' on the ovary. >image | image<

seta: a bristle or stiff hair; terminal seta: an appendage to the tip of an organ, e.g. to the primary rachis of a bipinnate leaf in Acacia. adj. setaceous.

setiferous: bearing setae.

setose: covered with bristles.

setulose: covered with fine bristles; resembling a fine bristle.

sheath: the lower portion of a grass leaf, clasping the stem; one of the wing-like extensions to the margins of the petiole which wrap around and enclose the stem; closed sheath: one in which the wings are fused to form a cylinder; open sheath: one with a slit on the side opposite to the lamina. >image<

shrub: a woody plant less than 5 metres high, either without a distinct main axis, or with branches persisting on the main axis almost to its base.

sigmoid: doubly curved in opposite directions like the letter S.

siliceous: containing silica.

silicula: a short siliqua, not more than twice as long as its width.

siliqua: a dry, dehiscent fruit formed from a superior ovary of two carpels, with two parietal placentas and divided into two loculi by a false septum between the placentas.

simple: undivided; of a leaf, not divided into leaflets; of a hair or an inflorescence, not branched. >image<

sinistrorse: turned towards the left. cf.dextrorse.

sinuate: with deep, wave-like depressions along the margin. cf.undulate. >image<

sinus: a notch or depression in the margin of an organ.

solitary: of flowers, borne singly, not grouped in an inflorescence.

sorus: in ferns, a discrete group of sporangia. pl. sori.

spadix: a spicate inflorescence with a stout, often succulent axis. >image<

superior: of an ovary, borne above the level of attachment of the other floral parts, or above the base of a cup (hypanthium) that is free from the ovary and bears the perianth segments and stamens. cf.inferior. >image<

suture: a line of junction between two fused organs; a line of dehiscence.

syconium: a multiple fruit with a hollow centre, e.g. in figs (Ficus). >image<

sympatric: of distributions of two taxa or populations, having coincident or overlapping ranges of distribution. cf.allopatric, parapatric.

sympetalous: (= gamopetalous): with the petals united by their margins, at least at the base. cf.polypetalous.

sympodial: of growth, without a single, persistent growing point; changing direction by frequent replacement of the growing apex by a lateral growing point below it; of a stem, growing in the above manner. cf.monopodial.

synandrium: an androecium with the anthers of the stamens cohering. cf.syngenesious.

synangium: a group of fruits fused into a single structure; in ferns, a group of fused sporangia.

synapomorphic: of a character, derived, and shared by two or more taxa. cf.apomorphic, autapomorphic.

syncarp: a structure consisting of several united fruits, usually fleshy. cf.aggregate fruit.

syncarpous: of a flower, having two or more carpels, all fused together. >image<

syngenesious: of the stamens of one flower, fused together by the anthers, e.g. in Asteraceae. cf.monadelphous, synandrium.

syntepalum: in some Musaceae, a unilaterally split tube formed by the coherence of 3 sepals and 2 petals.

syntype: one of two or more specimens cited by the author at the time of publication of a name if no holotype was designated; any one of two or more specimens simultaneously designated as types; isosyntype: a duplicate of the syntype. cf.type.